American politics

Obesity rates

Scaling down

Feb 26th 2014, 19:44by C.H. | NEW YORK

THERE have been hints recently that the steady expansion of America’s waistlines might have slowed. In some groups and in some places, such as New York City and Anchorage, obesity rates even seemed to be dipping. Whether these were harbingers of broader change remained anyone’s guess. On February 25th America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) brought new, wider evidence of progress.

Most promising, there was a 43% drop in obesity rates among young children aged two to five. In 2003-04 13.9% children were obese; in 2011-12 this number went down to 8.4%. As for everyone else, between 2003 and 2012 there was no significant change in obesity rates. Depressing as it might sound, this is actually something of a victory. Steady obesity rates are much better than rising ones.

Nevertheless, America is hardly healthy. More than one in three adults and one in six children were obese in 2011-12. Black and Hispanic children are more likely to be obese than white ones. Extreme obesity is most common among middle-aged women and black people. For women aged 60 and over, obesity rates jumped by 21%.

The question, then, is how to build on this progress. It is hard to credit changes in obesity to any one factor, but the CDC offered some suggestions: children are guzzling less sugary drinks, more mothers are breastfeeding and schools and day-care centres are offering more nutritious foods. Though paternalistic bans on super-size sodas remain unpopular, voluntary measures to make food healthier and less caloric are gaining ground among food and beverage companies. Efforts to limit the marketing of junk foods, however, have gone nowhere. McDonald's was one of the main sponsors of American Olympians at the recent games. One advertisement showed Olympians biting their gold medals, followed by a group of young, fit Americans chomping on chicken McNuggets.